Who's taking what? Hamilton's drug addiction problem, by the numbers

Hamilton made a dramatic shift this week towards prioritizing harm reduction as a strategy for dealing with drug abuse.

As part of that plan, the board of health approved plans to offer clean crack pipes, expand Hamilton's opioid overdose-reversing naloxone program, as well as begin exploring the viability of local safe injection sites for intravenous drug users (pending budget debates).

But why is there such a need for those kinds of programs?

• City approves free crack pipes, moves towards safe injection site study
• Opioid overdose deaths nearly double, as Hamilton's dead remembered

It's because drug deaths are rising, the city says, while emergency room visits that are drug-related are higher in Hamilton than the rest of the province.

A harm reduction approach, the city says, saves lives, lowers disease rates and improves "public order" (ie: lowering the number of people shooting up in alleys and leaving needles behind).

Here are the numbers on drugs in Hamilton that the city is pointing to when making these decisions:

How many people are taking drugs?

• 12.3:The percentage ofHamilton residents that are 18-year-old or older whohave used some sort of "illicit" drug in the last year, according to the2011/2012 Canadian Community Health Survey.
• 41: The percentage of people who used pot at least once in their lifetime.
• 10: The percentageof adults who reported using stimulants (like cocaine or amphetamines) at least once, followed by hallucinogens (LSD) and depressants (heroin).

The city says these numbers are similar to the rest of Ontario. That said, they don't capture anyone under the age of 18 and heavy, habitual drug users may not be terribly inclined to fill out community health surveys.

Opioid deaths a rising issue

Increasingly, opioid overdoses (from substances like fentanyl, heroin and oxycodone) are becoming more prevalent in the city.

• 34: The number of people who died from opioid toxicity in Hamilton in 2011.
• 31: The number of people who died from opioid toxicity in Hamilton in 2014.
• 18: The number of people who died from opioid toxicity in Hamilton in 2005.

But even those numbers are likely a conservative estimate, associate medical officer of health Dr. Jessica Hopkins said at yesterday's board of health meeting.

Strain on the health care system

Drug use puts a strain on the healthcare system, with emergency department visits for drug-related mental and behavioural disorders have increasing since 2002 for both Hamilton and Ontario.

• 182: The number of emergency department visits in Hamilton for drug-related disorders per 1,011 in 2015.

From 2011 to 2015, the rate in Hamilton rose significantly and ishigher than the rest of Ontario.

Hamilton's hospital admission rates for mental and behavioural disorders related to substance use have been increasing since 2002, too.

The naloxone program

Naloxone is an opioid antagonist that was first developed in the 1960s. When injected into a person who is overdosing, it can reverse the effects of prescription opiates for about 10 minutes, which is long enough to get them to hospital.

• $48: The cost of each naloxone kit, paid for by the province.
• 582: The number of free kits the city has distributed in the last two years to addicts and people close to them.
• 148: The number of times the city says the kits have been used
• $260,956: The cost of a proposed expansion to the naloxone program